The A513 can be described as the scenic route from Tamworth to Stafford, an alternative to the A51.

Starting on the Anker Drive gyratory in Tamworth the road zigzags through the suburbs and leaves town heading north through pleasant farmland close to the River Tame. After passing Elford the road goes under the Birmingham to Derby railway line and runs parallel to it, passing under the railway again just before the National Memorial Arboretum, whose access road is the original line of the A513. The A38 is crossed at a GSJ at Alrewas after which the road continues west, now close to the River Trent, to reach King's Bromley and a T-junction on the A515.

The road multiplexes south along the A515 back into open country and then regains its number by turning right. This section is rather flat but presently ends at a T-junction on the bank of the River Trent. To the right is the B5014, which crosses the river ro run towards Uttoxeter; but we turn left and enter Handsacre. This village merges seamlessly into Armitage (the bridge under the West Coast Main Line seems to be the boundary) and then we leave town running parallel to the Trent & Mersey Canal to reach a roundabout on the A51 Rugeley bypass. Originally the A513 continued ahead into the centre of town to meet the A51 there.

Outside Shugborough Hall

There is a multiplex of a few miles around the eastern side of Rugeley and onto the edge of Cannock Chase, where the A513 regains its number at the double-roundabout Wolseley Bridge junction. Our route continues west along the northern side of the Chase and passes to the south of the Shugborough Estate, former home of the Earls of Lichfield and now owned by the National Trust. The road becomes semi-urban at Milford and presently reaches the Stafford suburb of Weeping Cross, where it arrives at a double mini-roundabout and the A34.

It would seem that the A513 ends here – and originally it did – but since the 1970s the number has been set aside for a Stafford eastern bypass. The southern section, across the River Sow, has not been approved as it faces difficult environmental problems, although traffic can follow a poor-quality road through Baswich north to the A518. It's generally easier, however, to go through the centre of Stafford, so the next time the A513 is seen is at a roundabout on the A518 in the Beaconside area of town. The road runs north then west, passing RAF Stafford, before ending at a roundabout in the Trinity Fields area of town. The other three directions here are all numbered A34: the extra one is straight ahead which only goes as far as junction 14 of the M6.